It smashed Box Office records worldwide to become the highest grossing film in history, now James Cameron's Avatar is setting new benchmarks in the Blu-ray market. Around 1.5 million Blu-ray discs were snapped-up on the first day of release in the U.S. - more than previous record holder The Dark Knight - and that's just the 2D version, without special features. The Blu-ray release also triggered an avalanche of illegal downloads, with the sci-fi epic now well on its way to becoming the most pirated Blu-ray film ever.

Downloads on BitTorrent reportedly reached 200,000 in the first four days after the Blu-ray release. TorrentFreak points out that countries where the Blu-ray release was later than the U.S. (U.K. and Australia) made up a relatively high proportion of the illegal downloads.

In stores, combined DVD and Blu-ray sales where estimated at more the 4 million units.

A second 2D release with bonus features is expected in November and the full box of chocolates - for those with 3D Blu-ray players - will arrive early in 2011.

Given its incredible success to date, the film certainly won't do any damage to the uptake of 3D in the home.